Paul Craig Roberts Worries "What Is Henry Kissinger Up To?"

The English language Russian news agency, Sputnik, reports that former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is advising US president-elect Donald Trump how to “bring the United States and Russia closer together to offset China’s military buildup.”

If we take this report at face value, it tells us that Kissinger, an old cold warrior, is working to use Trump’s commitment to better relations with Russia in order to separate Russia from its strategic alliance with China.

China’s military buildup is a response to US provocations against China and US claims to the South China Sea as an area of US national interests. China does not intend to attack the US and certainly not Russia.

Kissinger, who was my colleague at the Center for Strategic and International studies for a dozen years, is aware of the pro-American elites inside Russia, and he is at work creating for them a “China threat” that they can use in their effort to lead Russia into the arms of the West. If this effort is successful, Russia’s sovereignty will be eroded exactly as has the sovereignty of every other country allied with the US.

At President Putin’s last press conference, journalist Marat Sagadatov asked if Russia wasn’t already subject to forms of foreign semi-domination: “Our economy, industry, ministries and agencies often follow the rules laid down by international organizations and are managed by consulting companies. Even our defense enterprises have foreign consulting firms auditing them.” The journalist asked, “if it is not time to do some import substitution in this area too?”

Every Russian needs to understand that being part of the West means living by Washington’s rules. The only country in the Western Alliance that has an independent foreign and economic policy is the US.

All of us need to understand that although Trump has been elected president, the neoconservatives remain dominant in US foreign policy, and their commitment to the hegemony of the US as the uni-power remains as strong as ever. The neoconservative ideology has been institutionalized in parts of the CIA, State Department and Pentagon. The neoconservatives retain their influence in media, think tanks, university faculties, foundations, and in the Council on Foreign Relations.

We also need to understand that Trump revels in the role of tough guy and will say things that can be misinterpreted as my friend, Finian Cunningham, whose columns I read, usually with appreciation, might have done.

I do not know that Trump will prevail over the vast neoconservative conspiracy. However, it seems clear enough that he is serious about reducing the tensions with Russia that have been building since President Clinton violated the George H. W. Bush administration’s promise that NATO would not expand one inch to the East. Unless Trump were serious, there is no reason for him to announce Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as his choice for Secretary of State. In 2013 Mr. Tillerson was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship.

As Professor Michel Chossudovsky has pointed out, a global corporation such as Exxon has interests different from those of the US military/security complex. The military/security complex needs a powerful threat, such as the former “Soviet threat” which has been transformed into the “Russian threat,” in order to justify its hold on an annual budget of approximately one trillion dollars. In contrast, Exxon wants to be part of the Russian energy business. Therefore, as Secretary of State, Tillerson is motivated to achieve good relations between the US and Russia, whereas for the military/security complex good relations undermine the orchestrated fear on which the military/security budget rests.

Clearly, the military/security complex and the neoconservatives see Trump and Tillerson as threats, which is why the neoconservatives and the armaments tycoons so strongly opposed Trump and why CIA Director John Brennan made wild and unsupported accusations of Russian interference in the US presidential election.

The lines are drawn. The next test will be whether Trump can obtain Senate confirmation of his choice of Tillerson as Secretary of State.

The myth is widespread that President Reagan won the cold war by breaking the Soviet Union financially with an arms race. As one who was involved in Reagan’s effort to end the cold war, I find myself yet again correcting the record.

Reagan never spoke of winning the cold war. He spoke of ending it. Other officials in his government have said the same thing, and Pat Buchanan can verify it.

Reagan wanted to end the Cold War, not win it. He spoke of those “godawful” nuclear weapons. He thought the Soviet economy was in too much difficulty to compete in an arms race. He thought that if he could first cure the stagflation that afflicted the US economy, he could force the Soviets to the negotiating table by going through the motion of launching an arms race. “Star wars” was mainly hype. (Whether or nor the Soviets believed the arms race threat, the American leftwing clearly did and has never got over it.)

Reagan had no intention of dominating the Soviet Union or collapsing it. Unlike Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama, he was not controlled by neoconservatives. Reagan fired and prosecuted the neoconservatives in his administration when they operated behind his back and broke the law.

The Soviet Union did not collapse because of Reagan’s determination to end the Cold War. The Soviet collapse was the work of hardline communists, who believed that Gorbachev was loosening the Communist Party’s hold so quickly that Gorbachev was a threat to the existence of the Soviet Union and placed him under house arrest. It was the hardline communist coup against Gorbachev that led to the rise of Yeltsin. No one expected the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The US military/security complex did not want Reagan to end the Cold War, as the Cold War was the foundation of profit and power for the complex. The CIA told Reagan that if he renewed the arms race, the Soviets would win, because the Soviets controlled investment and could allocate a larger share of the economy to the military than Reagan could.

Reagan did not believe the CIA’s claim that the Soviet Union could prevail in an arms race. He formed a secret committee and gave the committee the power to investigate the CIA’s claim that the US would lose an arms race with the Soviet Union. The committee concluded that the CIA was protecting its prerogatives. I know this because I was a member of the committee.

American capitalism and the social safety net would function much better without the drain on the budget of the military/security complex. It is more correct to say that the military/security complex wants a major threat, not an actual arms race. Stateless Muslim terrorists are not a sufficient threat for such a massive US military, and the trouble with an actual arms race as opposed to a threat is that the US armaments corporations would have to produce weapons that work instead of cost overruns that boost profits.

The latest US missile ship has twice broken down and had to be towed into port. The F-35 has cost endless money, has a variety of problems and is already outclassed. The Russian missiles are hypersonic. The Russian tanks are superior. The explosive power of the Russian Satan II ICBM is terrifying. The morale of the Russian forces is high. They have not been exhausted from 15 years of fighting without much success pointless wars against women and children.

Washington, given the corrupt nature of the US military/security complex, can arms race all it wants without being a danger to Russia or China, much less to the strategic alliance between the two powers.

The neoconservatives are discredited, but they are still a powerful influence on US foreign policy. Until Trump relegates them to the ideological backwaters, Russia and China had best hold on to their strategic alliance. Anyone attempting to break this alliance is a threat to both Russia and China, and to America and to life on earth.

Our hope is that the creature know as (((Kissinger))) will breathe its last very very soon. He and his ilk have been the fomentors of ill for the past thirty generations. Once they're gone, utterly... nature will return to her natural stasus. It is imperative that we who know serve as the tools of this purpose.

In Australia we did our own trump, he was called Tony abbot , he seemed his own man and was dumb enough not to be controlled by anyone
Wrong
He was a disaster who was bought off by zionists within hours.
Trump will also be a big disappointment, only if he brings chaos will he be a success

@BigDuke6 - Abbot was a Rhodes Scholar, mentored by a Jesuit priest Anyone who thought he wasn't going to be a full blown Zionist was kidding themselves. Just as everyone who thought he was some moron incapable of doing real harm was kidding themselves. The guy is smart, and incredibly wiley: a whole lot smarter than Goldman boy Turnbull.

As to the article, I can accept that the likes of Kissinger would be willing to try anything to prise apart the China/Russia paradigm. I am convinced that the entire foreign policy part of the election was aimed at doing just that (Hillary was pro-China, anti-Russia. Trump is pro-Russia, anti-China).

Well done you for not hiding your link, but you are still a sad spammer with no life, no work and no income. If you put half the effort into getting a job as you do into trying to steal clicks, you could probably be chief burger-flipper at the fast-food outlet of your choice. Minimum wage must look awfully tempting, compared to the laughable pittance you get for ten misguided visits a week to your sad, no-hope religious weirdo website. Happy New year, and good luck with the job hunting. Seriously.

you guy is right that the bushes' tete a tete on neoconservatism doesn't get enough respect in pcr's stuff but pcr's more right than wrong, imo, especially his last paragraph.

i am not convinced that trump is a neocon/israel firster for all his recent protestations. they certainly didn't think so; they were united behind, around and in front of hillary, for the most part. sheldon barely got trump to accept 25 million the last week of the campaign for an anti hillary pac. that's not even trump's money now, i believe.

time will tell but i think some of the best things about trump are that he owes fewer people than any president in memory, hasn't made up his mind about some things and may be willing to change it as events unfold.

oh and his supporters can and will let him know what they think. having seen how obama shafted his base they should have a shorter fuse.

Kissinger is right on this one. Kissinger is a cunt also. Kissinger is one of the minds which pushed Russia into aliance with China. Kissinger now realizes how bad of an idea that was. Obama is soo pissed of that he was exposed just as a front puppet/pinnata which is going now to collect all the shit for the mistakes made the last 8 years. Suck it Obama - get real, if you were so intelligent, you couldn't foresee you'll be also the scape goat if the shit is not going to go as per plan A?! Too late, Russia got confirmed for the n*th time that US is not a discussion partner of trust; Russia is not going to leave the alliance with China. Without China's open unlimited support for Russia now Obama would have been entering his 3rd term and leading America into the war with Russia - and Putin knows that. People knowing Eastern customs know that in Russia and China integrity and loyalty are at high respect when about alliances when life and death are at stake, if you don't honour your pact of trust & help, it is over, forever. With consequences of the worst nature.

I appreciate your comment. But would add that the respect between Russia and China is based on an appreciation of their differences. This is especially true in the Far East regions such as those straddling the Amur river. Mutual benefit is the cement which holds their relationship together, Russia has vast resources and a diminishing population. China has a vast labour and consumer market to be exploited. Both have the technologies and capital to profit, The east of Russia and the western Pacific is an area holding great potential.

The relevance of the US and its dominance through military threat has already been eclipsed. No stable relationship is ever built on threat, and the benefits of partnering with US enterprises can only be developed on mutual terms. So until the US abandons hegemonic, and monopolistic manners in their enterprises it makes their participation in the "eastern rise" problematic.

The crystal ball I have here says that, once the Dollar gets over its death throws (first over valued then hyper inflated and finally discarded as a the global standard while the whole world goes through a shock therapy of debt/asset collapse), those pragmatic US businessmen will finally come to understand that they are capable of participating with capital and technologies on a level playing field without the necessity of their corrupt tactics of economic hit men or military/security threats. But it might take some time, especially for the Liverpudlians in Washington to realize that they are no longer the centre of the earth.

Enterprise can be built on mutual trust or domination. Obviously the trust-based model is more productive and enables the production of more general wealth.

Extremely wealthy people know they themselves cannot be trusted and so they trust no one. This is why the domination model is preferred. It takes a very special person to trust. The Bushes knew Reagan wasn't one of them when he told Gorbachev "Trust but verify", and that is why they had to get rid of him.

Power mad sociopaths are incapable of trust. So we are stuck with domination-based economic systems which are less than efficient, not mutually beneficial, and appear to be based on a zero sum model.

True, but trust can be based on knowing and appreciating the limits of your partner's ability, intention, and commitment and knowing your own. His greed and ambition can only limit his progress. Its a dance of power in which putting your partner in a corner spoils the party. There's no love lost between Russia and China, but they will dance together as long as both remember the steps and neither gets, or uses, the upper hand to try and rape the other. I think it is essentially an Asian view. I think Putin's Judo practice has served him no end, although people see him as a chess player.

I remember Deng Xiaoping in a press conference with Kakue Tanaka 1978, when asked about the disputed southern islands of Japan Deng Xiaoping answered: "look PM Tanaka and I have come a long way in a few days to make a peace and friendship treaty, many problems were discussed and many overcome. Don't you think we should leave a few for our children to solve."

The relevance of the power-domination based economic system is passed, as is the effective importance of those sociopaths principally because their effect has not only been "less than efficient" but it has put the entire economy and stability of the world on the brink of collapse and this has become more than apparent right down to the common man anywhere.

I like Aikido, it is a martial art that has no competition. We train at harmonizing with our movements to control the energy and force of any attack. In practice we do not see the attack as a threat but as an opportunity and we adapt our response so that we need not use any reciprocal force or violence but practice the perfection of our accepting the inward bound force with appropriate movements of a controlled response. Control is the key. Mutually seeking self control in harmony requires great practice. Domination is short lived. We live in a dynamic universe and everything changes by the minute, by the second. When Washington and the powers that be are not centred on reality it has already lost its balance and is falling under its own weight. It's not so subtle, in fact it's quite obvious. The game has already changed from Checkers to Go.

PCR is right on the money. It's so simple and hidden from the American public because most don't/can't read.

The Military Complex needs a bad guy and the American public has been completely Disney-fied. The MIC uses Disney-fication (using the nefarious bad guy with black hair and mustache) in order to make Americans believe they always know who the villain is.

The China-Russian border is a backwater liability for both countries. Neither wants to take on each other's burden. Any teritorial alliance is a matter of convenience. Economically speaking China is the puppet master and Russia is....

Kissinger is correct that China is a much bigger threat than Russia. China is a Lion Fish while Russia is a Puffer Fish.

Henry Kissmyazz is little more than a shriveled up has-been war criminal. He has about as much sway in Russia as does Hillary Clinton.

On the other hand, Russia and China are building an energy pipeline together and are bilateral trading partners. Both countries are dumping US Treasuries. Both countries would love to end the USD's reserve currency status. Russia ain't giving up anything to the US. Trump needs to make peace with both countries and stick the fear and war mongering right up the neocons' asses.

Henry Kissinger has been an advisor (officially or unofficially) to every president since Eisenhower , except for John F Kennedy who did not want Kissinger near the White House. Kennedy declared that Kissinger’s policies were all “insane”.

the actual origin of the neocons were asshats so far to the left that no one wanted to deal with them except some far right fringes. deal with the devil. look at nazi's etc: same control freak tendencies.